BOOK CLUB

I found this book taking an enormous amount of energy to process. I am overwhelmed with feelings of helplessness about having an impact on this evil that has become so pervasive and systemic. I am especially disturbed about how many mothers have knowingly sacrificed their daughters to this. I do find hope in the way Mam's safehouse has grown and matured so quickly. Eg. The scarves could bring them many more resources and much publicity that could buttress public interest/pressure on the situation.

I think having a 6 year old daughter who was abandoned as a newborn in China brings this closer to home. I have never been able to let myself imagine what would have become of her had she not been adopted, let alone be subjected to this kind of evil. It's impossible to go there.

I find hope in looking at another pervasive, systemic evil that has been perpetrated upon girls for centuries: Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM. A friend's grandmother, a retired missionary who served in East Africa for 40 years once said of FGM when asked if it would ever end, "Yes, when the Lord comes back."

But she was wrong. The tide is definitively turning against this widespread torture. Entire villages that became Christians have given up the practice. Education has worked in many places. Two Ugandan girls that since 2001 I supported the rescue, relocation and education of, just graduated from college as teachers! Simply by virtue of these girls being in the program, their little sisters at home were spared. Christine and Catherine are among many bright young women who will change Africa.

When I first began working against FGM I was shocked to learn how many of my contemporaries had never even heard of this. We can do so much by simply educating everyone in our sphere of influence about child sex trafficking. At times it will be discouraging to find out how many Christians don't care about what occurs beyond their front door, or choose the responsibility-absolving path of disbelief, but many will choose to be God's hands in this. It's our job to find them.

Right after I finished the book and was feeling very discouraged, God gave me this verse (one of those close-your-eyes-and-open-the-Bible kinds of things): "...All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go. Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is His name. He will vigorously defend their cause..." Jeremiah 50:33b-34, NIV.

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